Tuesday, February 16, 2010

An Enlightening Discussion about the Collapse of the Wavefunction

http://arxiv.org/ftp/quant-ph/papers/0509/0509042.pdf

Abstract
An analysis has been performed of the theories and postulates advanced by von
Neumann, London and Bauer, and Wigner, concerning the role that consciousness might
play in the collapse of the wave function, which has become known as the measurement
problem. This reveals that an error may have been made by them in the area of biology
and its interface with quantum mechanics when they called for the reduction of any
superposition states in the brain through the mind or consciousness. Many years later
Wigner changed his mind to reflect a simpler and more realistic objective position,
expanded upon by Shimony, which appears to offer a way to resolve this issue. The
argument is therefore made that the wave function of any superposed photon state or
states is always objectively changed within the complex architecture of the eye in a
continuous linear process initially for most of the superposed photons, followed by a
discontinuous nonlinear collapse process later for any remaining superposed photons,
thereby guaranteeing that only final, measured information is presented to the brain, mind
or consciousness. An experiment to be conducted in the near future may enable us to
simultaneously resolve the measurement problem and also determine if the linear nature
of quantum mechanics is violated by the perceptual process.

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